I think I’ve found a new favorite website for travel-related time-killing, filled with both comedy and horror. (It’s not a new site, it’s just new to me.) The Aviation Herald provides short descriptions of airline “incidents” that warranted some sort of diversion, maintenance, or the calling of the authorities.

But some of these are (unintentionally?) hilarious, despite their clinical reporting style.

Perhaps my favorite so far:

An Air India Boeing 747-400, registration VT-ESO performing flight AI-191 from Mumbai (India) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany) with 229 passengers, was enroute about one hour into the flight, when the cargo fire alert triggered. The crew activated the cargo fire suppression system, declared emergency and returned to Mumbai, where the airplane landed safely 1:45 hours after departure. Attending fire services found no trace of fire or heat. [...] Engineers found no fault with the fire detection system as well and started to suspect, that bags of finest curry powder within the cargo bay, part of a passenger’s checked luggage, could have been responsible for the fire alert. Further tests showed, that particles had escaped the bags and indeed triggered the sensors.

We’ve all heard about bird strikes, which, perhaps most famously, are suspected of bringing down the US Airways Airbus that landed in the Hudson River. But how about bumble bees?

Or pirate radio interfering with inflight communications?

How about model rockets crossing flight paths?

Laser beams blinding pilots?

And dozens of bomb hoaxes and attempted (but failed) hijackings. (Even a real bomb, which was defused, on board an Iranian airliner.)

It’s both frightening and amusing. Granted, most flights go off without a hitch, but with thousands of flights daily, somewhere around the world there’s got to be something odd. Those with a fear of flying may not appreciate the humor as much as I do, so be warned…

Yes, there’s a bit of sadness in there, too, as they analyze the serious events wherein people got hurt or died, too. But there’s so much more in there. Hours of fascination, sometimes even entertainment.

(Thanks to Kim for pointing this out!)

(images: 1, 2, 3)